MPAA & RIAA Want More Copyright Standards From NAFTA

The RIAA and the MPAA have elaborate plans on how they want the US government to negotiate NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement is a pretty important piece of negotiation document.

And it makes sense that entities such as the Motion Pictures Association of America along with Recording Industry Association of America would want to have a say in it.

As expected, both the MPAA and the RIAA have submitted their proposals to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

And in the process of doing so, have made their positions crystal clear.

So what do they want?

Well, both want US allies such as Mexico and Canada to commit more.

The MPAA and RIAA want them to toughen up their copyright laws.

These “improvements” to their copyright laws will come in the form of more restrictions on certain “safe harbor” provisions.

The MPAA and RIAA want these countries to get rid of them because they go beyond what is considered as current US practice.

As mentioned in the introductory piece on this article, the North American Free Trade Agreement is a very important piece of document.

It is so because of the countries that sign this document.

At the moment, the document acts as an agreement between three powerful countries.

These countries are as follows,

The Unites States of America

Mexico

Canada

The North American Free Trade Agreement came into existence about 25 years ago.

Back then two, the same three countries (the US, Canada, and Mexico) signed the negotiated document.

Now, all countries have had more than a quarter of a century to develop the document.

The developments to the document, so far, have not impressed any of the three countries.

And that is the reason why the United States of America wants to bring it up to date.

This “modernization” will, of course, require a lot of cooperation from the other two countries.

Namely, Canada and Mexico.

The US government has recently said that while their economy and the country’s businesses have managed to evolve and changed at a considerable rate in the last twenty-five years, the NAFTA document has not.

This makes it clear to all parties that the US seriously wants to modernize the NAFTA agreement.

Keeping this firmly in mind, the United States government has requested comments from all the concerned parties.

The US government believes that seeking such direction from all parties would help the government to negotiate a better deal for its economy.

So, in short, we know that the US government wants US companies and businesses to come forward with their problems regarding NAFTA and sort them out.

And because of that groups such as RIAA and the MPAA have quickly moved forward to let the US government know their positions on some critical issues.

For these two organizations, the critical issues are usually,

Copyright laws

Punishment for copyright infringements

So is it really a surprise that both the MPAA and RIAA want the US government to put issues such as intellectual property high on its list of agendas.

As indicated earlier, both the MPAA and the RIAA have submitted their comments to the US government.

The MPAA has written (in its submission), that the lifeblood of the United States television and motion picture industry is copyright.

So it stands to reason why the MPAA wants to place such issues at the very top of its and the US government’s priority list.

The MPAA wants the US government to do everything it possibly can to secure strong laws regarding enforcement and protection disciplines the trade agreement’s intellectual property chapters.

The RIAA has written something very similar in its submission to the US government.

It noted in its submission that forceful intellectual property rights enforcement and protection are indeed critical when it comes to the music industry as far as trade priorities are concerned.

The RIAA also said that better NAFTA agreement could help the industry to grow quicker than before.

Currently, too many pirates and pirating platforms get away without punishment, according to the MPAA

It wrote that with intellectual property rights, it could create more and better jobs.

Furthermore, a strong NAFTA could help the RIAA to make impactful contributions to the US economy.

Hence, it could help the US economy to grow.

Stricter intellectual property rights will also enable the organization to improve the security of its properties.

This, in turn, would allow all concerned parties to invest more in artists.

Consequently, artists will come up with more creative work than before and will drive the US economy with technological innovation.

So it is clear now that both the MPAA and the RIAA have some specific and clear demands.

It is also clear that each, MPAA and RIAA, want an environment which is very different from the current one.

To put it in simpler words, both want the law to not only go after infringers but also ISPs.

Yes.

Both groups consider internet service providers along with services and platforms equally blameworthy of piracy.

As far as the RIAA is concerned, the organization has focused the majority of efforts on Value Gap.

What is the Value Gap?

It is a term that can thank its existence to organizations such as the RIAA and the MPAA.

Basically, it is a phenomenon that is only found on sites where the content comes purely from users.

Zohair is currently a content crafter at Security Gladiators and has been involved in the technology industry for more than a decade. He is an engineer by training and, naturally, likes to help people solve their tech related problems. When he is not writing, he can usually be found practicing his free-kicks in the ground beside his house.

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